May 23, 2008

SHO-wing! Shostar: The Ford Windstar SHO Concept Car

I know some Dodge Caravan's got a hemi, but I had NO idea Ford ever contemplated an SHO version of the dreariest minivan they ever produced. Oh wait, that was the Aerostar. The Windstar was what it was.

But the lone performance-enhanced, Windstar SHO concept car, dubbed the Shostar [SHOstar?] was what it could have been. Based on a second-generation Windstar [1999-2003], the SHOstar debuted at the Detroit Auto Show. It had the SHO Taurus's 220-hp, 3.0-liter V-6 engine and 5-speed gearbox transplanted straight in. The reconfigured nose and ground effects were suprisingly subtle. [Ironically, the tackiest feature-- a fiber optically enhanced grille & backlit blue oval--is also the only thing that got close to production. Thanks, JC Whitney!]

2 Comments

The Windstar was a portly enough fellow that even the SHO engine wouldn't have added much zip.

Funny story: The Windstar was the first minivan to have 200 hp, back when 200 hp was still kind of a big deal (these days, even my lawnmower has 200 hp, but since it weighs 4 tons, 200 hp doesn't help it much). A friend who worked at Ford at the time said the Windstar guys all had coffee mugs with "200 HP" written on the side.

[that's awesome and embarrassing at the same time. Comparing the curb weights, the Windstar was 3900 lb vs. 3G Taurus's 3,329. If you could fit ten bags of topsoil in the Taurus SHO's trunk, they'd be even. -ed.]